“We’re dealing with the assassination of five police officers,” former New York City Police Department detective Bo Dietl told Stephen K. Bannon Friday. “This was a trained professional. This guy had military experience. … what is the motive behind it? Is it trying to start a race war between the blacks and the cops in the country?”

At least one sniper killed five police officers and wounded seven others at a demonstration in Dallas on Thursday night. Protesters had peacefully taken to the streets to rally against recent police shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana when shots rang out.

Officers cornered the suspect in the El Centro College parking garage, engaging in negotiations before dispatching a robot with an explosive device. According to officials, the sniper was killed by the device and three other individuals are in custody.

Dallas police chief David Brown told reporters that during the shootout, the suspect revealed his motivations claiming he was upset about the recent killings of black people and said that he wanted to kill white people — particularly white police officers.

“I’m really angry about this ‘cuz it brings back memories of the Black Liberation Army when I was a cop in the early 70’s, remember 13 cops were killed one year, assassinated like this and 11 the next year,” Dietl said. “This is horrific and the people across America have to realize one thing, America isn’t black, white, Muslim or anything else, America is all people. And the cops are there for one reason, whether they are black or white cops, there to protect.”